Steady traffic on Wednesday afternoon interrupted the hum as vehicles passed the rustic building, which is scheduled be auctioned to the highest cash bidder on the steps of Onslow County Superior Court this week, according to court documents.

A partition sale was ordered after the 8,750-square-foot building, located on U.S. 17 in Holly Ridge, could not be divided “in kind without substantial injury to the underlying interests of the parties and therefore must be sold at a (p)artition (s)ale,” according to findings of fact filed May 13 in Onslow County Superior Court.

The proceeding calls for the public auction at noon June 25 “at the courthouse door in Onslow County,” according to the notice of sale filed May 23 at Clerk of Superior Court. Superior Court is at 625 Court St. in Jacksonville.

“I was there when it was first built,” Holly Ridge Town Manager and Police Chief John Maiorano said. “It was a big restaurant with a little stage in the back. When that shut down, it was a shame.”

Maiorano recalled the restaurant — at one time known as Betty’s Smokehouse — closed “two or three years ago,” a date that is not indicated in court documents.

Eight heirs were named in the will of restaurant founder Dr. Milton Levine, who died March 14, 2002.

One of the heirs, Avrum Marc Levine of Dunedin, New Zealand, filed a petition for partition sale in Onslow Superior Court April 30. In that document, Levine attests that the restaurant was “a viable business in 2006 which employed many local people.”

The auction is for the 4.38 acres that include the building. That property was valued at $554,070, according to 2012 tax receipts.

The additional 15.76 adjacent acres that Levine owned will not be part of the auction, according to court documents.

An ad on Craigslist.org posted in various North Carolina cities advertises the auction and cites the correct court file number.